South African police on Monday said that frauds were circulating letters in which they claimed to be victims of south Asia's tsunami disaster in order to defraud the public of money.

"They request for money to be transferred via money wiring or direct bank deposits," which, however, would never reach the real victims of the disaster, said police spokesman Ronnie Naidoo.

The SAPA news agency said the police have already known of more than 15 such scam letters in circulation, with the first being circulated on the day the tsunami struck.

Police estimated over 4 million such letters had been circulated worldwide via e-mail, and warned recipients of the letters not to respond to them.

The South African Red Cross Society on Monday handed a 4-million-rand (about 670,000 US dollars) cheque to the government's inter-ministerial committee coordinating the country's relief efforts after the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster.

The Red Cross handed over a cheque of 2.5 million rand last week, most of which were donations by the public.

Ten South Africans have been confirmed dead and 184 remained unaccounted for by Monday afternoon in the wake of the December 26quake and tsunami disasters that killed over 150,000 people in southern and southeastern Asian countries while leaving millions homeless and in urgent need for international aids.